Creating A Newsgame about Sex Work in Canada

Back in Production!

So, after a long hiatus, The Oldest Game is back in production! We’ve got a team made up of some original members and some new ones, and we are hitting the ground running to finish this game and release it.

However, some aspects of the game need to be changed, added to, and re-evaluated for the current context. Specifically, Bill C-36, the controversial piece of legislation introduced by Stephen Harper’s government, has been in place for some time now (it received Royal Assent 6 November 2014), and we think it’s important to make apparent in the game, how this legislation is affecting the lives of sex workers. To understand these changes, we are in the process of surveying new publications which highlight the changing context of sex work in Canada. We are looking at academic work, legal publications, and reading up on news releases and the work by sex worker advocacy organizations. We are going to change some of our existing scenarios, and add some new ones to reflect the changing realities of doing sex work in Canada.

After some reflection and feedback, we’ve also decided that integral to the game is including the voices of sex workers in some capacity. The thinking is: in a newspaper article, journalists collect quotes from stakeholders offering an opportunity for those affected by an issue to voice their opinion and have their perspectives represented. In The Oldest Game right now, we don’t have anything performing this function. So, we’ve decided to pursue an audio version of a quote, gathered from sex workers about the conditions of their work. This decision is based on an interest in exploring and expanding the conventions of the quote in the newsgame format, and on the feminist principle of including and centering the voices of those affected by issues in research and discussion. Some of the voices you will eventually hear will be those of sex workers; for those who don’t wish to include their voice, but want their perspectives to be part of the game, their comments will be distorted or re-recorded by an actor.

Team members in Vancouver, Montreal and possibly Toronto (the locations of the game) will be reaching out to sex workers to hear their perspectives, stories, and opinions for inclusion in the game. If you’re interested in having your voice be a part of it, reach out to us at theoldestgame@concordia.ca.